Liquid Heat
by Lacrimula Falsa
Summary: Steve's calm place is here, on a bed, with Tony holding a candle over him, smiling. [Steve/Tony, complete. For 2018 STONY MCU Bingo, "wax play".]


**Liquid Heat  
** _by Lacrimula Falsa_

 _Summary:_ Steve's calm place is here, on a bed, with Tony holding a candle over him, smiling. [Steve/Tony, complete. For 2018 STONY MCU Bingo, "wax play".]

 _ **Disclaimer:**_ I do not own any part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and/or any other Marvel franchise. I write for fun, not for profit.

 **Warnings!:** (Fully consensual) non-sexual _wax play kink_. _Nudity._

 **Please read:** I strongly discourage using this fic as a "how to" or guide for wax play. For one, Steve is a supersoldier and for another, this is first and foremost a fictional story. If this fic makes you curious about trying out this kink, please do your research and remember that every kink scene should be very well discussed with all involved. Also be aware that beeswax candles have a higher melting point than paraffin ones and the wax from them will consequently be hotter. Tony uses them here because of Steve's super-healing. Also, if you're not Captain America, treat burns after a scene to prevent lasting damage. (And again, research and discussion are key.)

 _A/N:_ For the S1 free space on my 2018 STONY MCU Bingo card, I choose the prompt "wax play". I wanted to write this kink in a non-explicit way, so there is no sex in this fic. Unbetad due to time constraints. Enjoy and let me know what you think! Comments make me melt like wax.

My card, together with the filled prompts can be found at lacrimula-falsa DOTdreamwidth DOT org SLASH 4105 DOT html (just fix the dots and slash)

* * *

When he was still fresh out of the ice and after they saved New York (and the world) for the first time, Steve's therapist used to talk about his "calm place" a lot. Somewhere he felt safe, relaxed and warm.

She probably isn't picturing something like this when they talk about it.

But Steve's calm place is here, on a bed, with Tony holding a candle over him, smiling.

Tony kisses him like he always does and gets the towel ready.

"Comfortable?"

Steve nods.

"Great. Colour?"

"Green."

Tony tilts the candle and hot wax spills over Steve's ribs.

It hurts at first, a sharp burning sensation that reminds him of the touch of a nettle. But within a few seconds, it dissipates, leaving a throbbing warmth in its place. Steve inhales the smell of beeswax – still the same in the future – and breathes out slowly.

"Colour?"

"Green."

Another sharp burst of heat hits his arm and Steve realises he's closed his eyes. The warmth in his chest and arm mingle together, like invisible threads of liquid heat connecting across his body.

It goes like that for a while, starbursts of painful heat that make his heart-rate spike ever so briefly, underlaid by liquid heat and mixed with kisses to his lips and Tony's voice asking him for a colour.

Steve floats.

Here, like this, he's reduced to a heart-beat and skin and the drip-drip-drip of wax running down his sides. No worries. No heroism. No shield and no Captain America and no confusion about the future.

When they started doing this, he'd felt truly warm for the first time since waking up in the future. He'd love Tony for that alone if there weren't so many other reasons.

After a while the pain starts to centre in the middle of his chest, where Tony's passed with the candle the most, the heat turning into something sharper that's like an army of tiny sharp-toothed creatures nibbling at his skin.

He hisses when a small splash of wax hits the spot that hurts the most.

Tony puts a hand on his shoulder, their signal that Steve has to listen.

"Hey, Steve, what's your colour?"

"Yellow. My chest hurts a lot."

"Yeah, I might have hit that a bit too heavily. Sorry. Want to turn on your front for me or should I peel the wax off first?"

"Turn."

"Okay. Roll over."

Steve does, hissing again when the sheets touch his smarting chest. It's better once he's settled in, the sharp burning ache fading to a dull throbbing.

He breathes out and feels Tony press kisses to his shoulder blades in silent apology. That's alright though. He knows this can happen. It's why he'd preferred the lesser heat of the paraffin candles, but the burns had simply never lasted long enough to make him feel good.

It's all about finding the middle ground with these things.

Steve startles when instead of another stream of wax hitting him, Tony starts pressing the still hot rim of a blown-out candle to his skin, making a line of wax dots. It feels oddly ticklish, with no pain at all. Instead, it makes his skin feel warm where the wax touches.

Steve smiles into his pillow while Tony makes a pattern on his skin, switching candles whenever the wax gets too cold. His head has cleared a little with the pain from before, enough for him to notice what shape the wax dots are beginning to form.

"Are you making a heart?"

"Maybe."

"Are you?"

He can hear the smile in Tony's voice. He can picture it too, curling under Tony's beard like a cat in tall grass. Hard to spot if you don't know what to look for.

"Okay, yes, it's a heart."

"Hah. I knew it."

"Hm-hm. Colour."

"Green as grass. It's starting to tickle though."

Tony's lips are still smiling when they touch the back of his neck.

"Let me finish my heart, Steve."

Steve's own smile turns into a grin.

"Okay."

"Thank you."

After Tony completes the heart, he starts laying lines of wax across Steve's back and thighs and Steve floats again, relaxed and happy to focus on nothing but the crisscrossing pattern of burning pain turning into soothing warmth. The pain on his chest is already mostly gone, the supersoldier serum hard at work fixing the burns. Then he feels Tony's hand on his shoulder again.

"Hey, Steve, can I try something?"

"Hm-hm."

"I need words."

"Green. Do the...thing."

"Alright. Hold still."

Suddenly Steve feels a stab of pain right in the middle of his back, making him arch off the bed in surprise.

Tony's slathered his hand in wax and pressed it to his back, searing his skin like a brand. Steve gasps when he falls back to the bed.

"Ow. Ow, yellow!"

The hand withdraws and something cool touches the painful imprint, taking away some of the pain.

"Not red?"

Steve shakes his head, mind suddenly clear and sharp with the adrenaline hit.

"No, it's okay, it just really hurt. In a bad way."

"Okay. My mistake. We won't repeat that." A tender hand brushes Steve's hair off his forehead. "Sorry."

"It's alright. We agreed to do this via trial and error, right? I'm more worried about your hand."

Tony is smiling when Steve cranes his neck to inspect his hands, holding up the right one, covered in a glove.

"Heat resistant glove. From the workshop."

"Oh. Smart. I think it made the heat worse though."

Tony grimaces slightly.

"Yeah. Might have. Sorry, I just figured the burn would last longer but bad idea I guess."

Steve lays his head back down, shrugging his shoulders.

"You're forgiven. It's not a big deal. But I think I have enough for today. Can you peel the wax off?"

Tony kisses the back of his neck again, smoothing his glove-less hand down his spine, avoiding the handprint.

"Sure. I'll start with the hand-print, that'll hurt the worst. Your front should be healed by now so that will just pinch."

"Okay, go ahead. Give me a moment after you do the hand-print."

"Will do."

Steve doesn't actually like this part. Tony likes having wax pulled off of _his_ skin but to Steve, it's mostly an annoying necessity. You can barely see his body hair because it's blond but that doesn't mean it's not there. It pinches and itches when Tony pulls the wax off, especially since there's usually no pain from the wax anymore to distract him from the hair being ripped out, that with him healing as fast as he does. Steve had tried – exactly once – to shave his skin beforehand and regretted it immediately, super-healing be damned.

So, it's not really great but it's made infinitely nicer by Tony kissing him in between freeing bits of his skin.

When Tony's done Steve feels clear-headed and present again and helps Tony put the candles, towel and cold water bowl away.

"So, despite the whole 'hand-shaped branding' mishap, did I do an okay job?"

Steve beams at him.

"A great one. You know, I'm glad you suggested this that one time."

Tony kisses his cheek in response, nestling into Steve's arms.

"I'm happy to hear that. And that you gave it a chance and weren't freaked out."

Steve shrugs.

"It wasn't weirder than the future in general and I always knew people liked all kinds of things in bed. Came with being around soldiers who liked to drink and blabber in their downtime. I'm just glad _you're_ not freaked out that for me it's not a sex thing."

Tony laughs.

"Well, it is when _you_ do it to _me_."

Steve grins at him and then gives in to the impulse to push Tony down onto the bed and straddle him.

No reason not to reward good service.

\- The End -


End file.
